Fixing Education: Will We Ever Learn?
Probably not, but this highlights the problem:
New data show that fewer than 25% of 2010 graduates who took the ACT college-entrance exam possessed the academic skills necessary to pass entry-level courses, despite modest gains in college-readiness among U.S high-school students in the last few years.
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About 70% of students who sat for the ACT took a core curriculum in high school, but only 29% met college-readiness standards on all four subject exams.
I know the rest of this Ticker is going to be unpopular, but it is nonetheless true:
Classes like "Web Design" and programs that put "computers in every classroom" will do exactly nothing to fix this.
Neither do integrating academic classes across intellectual capability - in fact, doing that is guaranteed to screw the brightest by holding the class back to within the abilities of the weakest students in the group. Nor, for that matter, does buying new textbooks every year advance one inch toward this goal. Biology, Chemistry and Physics don't get "re-written" and neither does mathematics. Classical English requires a stack of actual paperback classics for reading material, and grammar doesn't change every year either! Nor does history, if you're teaching actual history and not "social studies" intended to produce good little sheep instead of providing an intellectually-rigorous examination of both the successes and failures of civilizations from ancient times to the present day.
Intellectual rigor is necessary. But intellectual rigor means handing out lots of "F"s when they're called for - that is, failing students. It means sending home plenty of homework.
And it means cutting the crap in elementary and middle school, and instead of focusing on "smaller classes" and "smartboards in every room" we must instead focus on the CORE subjects with students separated by competence - that is, English, math, science and HISTORY, not "social studies."
All four of those are hard sciences and fact-based. "Social Studies" is not by definition, and the games played there must stop.
We must insist that so-called "core curriculum" students have a year of Biology, Chemistry and Physics in high school - and be prepared to take those classes when they come out of middle school. This means that fluff classes like "earth science" are inappropriate for college-bound students. Senior-year high school students should have a panoply of higher-level science studies to engage in (such as Organic Chem), having completed the core of Biology, Chemistry and Physics by the end of their junior year. We are woefully inadequate in our science education.
We must insist that students be able to take Algebra in their Freshman year of high school. This means the 8th grade year must be pre-Algebra - in middle school at worst. Incidentally, I'd argue that the current "cycle" on this is too wide that is, the typical "Algebra, Geometry, Algebra 2, Trig, Calc 1, etc" needs to ideally be reduced so that by one's senior year they're taking Calc 1. This, incidentally, is not seen as a core path anywhere I'm aware of when it comes to high school (absent IB or honors classes), but it damn well ought to be. Algebra should, IMHO, ideally be the core class in 8th grade, meaning you're taking geometry as a freshman.
And when it comes to English, what currently passes is laughable. Four years of english and literature should not only be mandatory, it should be extraordinarily rigorous, with students able to not only read and comprehend classical literature but be able to write in complete, proper sentences long before they graduate. The key to this is a strong reading curriculum in the earlier grades - without a strong reading ability the rest is a waste of time. Strong English skills are mandatory for both science and history - and if you're missing the first you're doomed with the other two.
Susan Traiman, public policy director for the Business Roundtable, called the mismatch between the core curriculum and the test scores "false advertising" by high schools. She also noted that the results spell trouble for businesses.
Of course they're false advertising. But the problem isn't, as often claimed, the "180 days of 50 minute classes." In point of fact the actual instructional time in terms of delivered instruction in the average High School is closer to two hours a day, not six.
This is repeatedly proved by home-schooled kids who manage to grossly exceed these standards while spending two hours a day in formal studies - but they actually work the entire two hours, with the rest being consumed with practical application of what they've learned.
I ran a company in Chicago for more than a decade, with the last five years of it in the city proper with a few dozen people working for me. Fully 80% of the applicants for positions with MCSNet were unable to pass an English and Math class calibrated at the fifth grade.
I demanded that applicants, to obtain an interview, be able to:
Complete 20 mathematics problems demonstrating practical math in a business sense - that is, the sales tax and change on a series of hypothetical transactions.
Demonstrate competence in business English, specifically, sufficient mastery of the language that the applicant could write a simple business letter to a customer explaining and documenting their payment history, along with the amount due.
80% of the people applying for positions - or more - all claiming High School diplomas - could not pass this exam. Yet there was no algebra demanded, say much less geometry or trig - only four-function mathematics performed with a pencil and paper, along with basic sentence structure and grammar!
I had a literal horizontal file cabinet full of failed tests with alleged "resumes" that were supposedly written by applicants that couldn't structure a sentence properly. Who wrote their resumes?
The NEA and the rest of the so-called "Educational Establishment" has failed. We cannot continue to pour money into a system that not only sucks, it has sucked and continues to suck. We don't need more spending, we don't need computers, and we sure as hell don't need $30,000 white boards and $10,000 worth of video games in our schools. What we need is reading, writing, hard science and arithmetic - all of which can be taught very effectively without one high-tech "innovation." Indeed, when it comes to the various mathematical disciplines calculators, computers and other so-called "innovations" are a hindrance, not a help, as they're a CRUTCH. We weren't allowed to use them in my classes and students should be allowed to possess them in school (instead, these days, "graphing calculators" are considered required tools in some high school classes! What the hell is wrong with a piece of graph paper and a pencil?)
The solution is for localities to issue educational vouchers to each parent in the amount of the school funding allocated to their child, and allow them to submit that voucher at the school of their choice, or to homeschool. However, in order to cash that voucher, said student must pass their grade-level standardized test which must be drawn from the core state-wide curriculum in each and every one of the core subjects. Classes must be integrated by intellectual ability so as to both challenge the brightest while allowing those who are not as bright to proceed.
Schools are not to nurture "self-esteem" - they are places of education where one is supposed to learn the core competencies required to succeed in the world of work. Our "educational lobby" has not only failed, they have failed spectacularly, and must be dismantled if we are to ever tackle this problem.
It starts with the parents and the business people in our communities. Until both raise hell and refuse to support the existing system, demanding and in fact forcing change, we will continue to fall behind. We must start with de-certification of the NEA and de-funding of the existing schools if they refuse to spend their time and money on actual education instead of blowing money on gimmicks and "high tech" nonsense.
In short we must play Donald Trump and say the famous two words: You're fired!
